3. CHAPTER III.
A very short chapter, in which however is a Sun, a Moon, a Star, and
an Angel
The sun (for he keeps very good hours at this time of the year)
had been some time retired to rest, when Sophia arose greatly
refreshed by her sleep; which, short as it was, nothing but her
extreme fatigue could have occasioned; for, though she had told her
maid, and perhaps herself too, that she was perfectly easy when she
left Upton, yet it is certain her mind was a little affected with that
malady which is attended with all the restless symptoms of a fever,
and is perhaps the very distemper which physicians mean (if they
mean anything) by the fever on the spirits.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick likewise left her bed at the same time; and, having
summoned her maid, immediately dressed herself. She was really a
very pretty woman, and, had she been in any other company but that
Sophia, might have been thought beautiful; but when Mrs. Honour of her
own accord attended (for her mistress would not suffer her to be
waked), and had equipped our heroine, the charms of Mrs.
Fitzpatrick, who had performed the office of the morning-star, and had
preceded greater glories, shared the fate of that star, and were
totally eclipsed the moment those glories shone forth.
Perhaps Sophia never looked more beautiful than she did at this
instant. We ought not, therefore, to condemn the maid of the inn for
her hyperbole, who, when she descended, after having lighted the fire,
declared, and ratified it with an oath, that if ever there was an
angel upon earth, she was now above-stairs.
Sophia had acquainted her cousin with her design to go to London;
and Mrs. Fitzpatrick had agreed to accompany her; for the arrival of
her husband at Upton had put an end to her design of going to Bath, or
to her aunt Western. They had therefore no sooner finished their
tea, than Sophia proposed to set out, the moon then shining
extremely bright, and as for the frost she defied it; nor had she
any of those apprehensions which many young ladies would have felt
at travelling by night; for she had, as we have before observed,
some little degree of natural courage; and this, her present
sensations, which bordered somewhat on despair, greatly encreased.
Besides, as she had already travelled twice with safety by the light
of the moon, she was the better emboldened to trust to it a third
time.
The disposition of Mrs. Fitzpatrick was more timorous; for, though
the greater terrors had conquered the less, and the presence of her
husband had driven her away at so unseasonable an hour from Upton,
yet, being now arrived at a place where she thought herself safe
from his pursuit, these lesser terrors of I know not what operated
so strongly, that she earnestly entreated her cousin to stay till
the next morning, and not expose herself to the dangers of
travelling by night.
Sophia, who was yielding to an excess, when she could neither
laugh nor reason her cousin out of these apprehensions, at last gave
way to them. Perhaps, indeed, had she known of her father's arrival at
Upton, it might have been more difficult to have persuaded her; for as
to Jones, she had, I am afraid, no great horror at the thoughts of
being overtaken by him; nay, to confess the truth, I believe wished
than feared it; though I might honestly enough have concealed this
wish from the reader, as it was one of those secret spontaneous
emotions of the soul to which the reason is often a stranger.
When our young ladies had determined to remain all that evening in
their inn, they were attended by the landlady, who desired to know
what their ladyships would be pleased to eat. Such charms were there
in the voice, in the manner, and in the affable deportment of
Sophia, that she ravished the landlady to the highest degree; and that
good woman, concluding that she had attended Jenny Cameron, became
in a moment a stanch Jacobite, and wished heartily well to the young
Pretender's cause, from the great sweetness and affability with
which she had been treated by his supposed mistress.
The two cousins began now to impart to each other their reciprocal
curiosity; to know what extraordinary accidents on both sides
occasioned this so strange and unexpected meeting. At last Mrs.
Fitzpatrick, having obtained of Sophia a promise of communicating
likewise in her turn, began to relate what the reader, if he is
desirous to know her history, may read in the ensuing chapter.